Fire Pro Wrestling

History

Beginning with the first title in the series from Human Entertainment, Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag for PC Engine in 1989, the Fire Pro Wrestling series eventually produced editions of games for many systems, notably the Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2. Human also released a wrestling game outside the Fire Pro Wrestling series in 1989 for Game Boy. Titled Pro Wrestling in its native Japan, it was released internationally as HAL Wrestling. Most of the titles in the Fire Pro Wrestling series have been released exclusively in Japan, although some of the games have seen releases in North America.

The series became popular in Japan, but did not see an international release until after Spike took over the franchise in 2000. Early games in the Fire Pro Wrestling series were popular outside Japan with import gamers, and at least one game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium for Super Famicom, received an unofficial fan translation through video game console emulators. Fire Pro Wrestling A for the Game Boy Advance was released internationally as Fire Pro Wrestling in 2001, and was one of the titles initially available when the Game Boy Advance was launched in Japan and North America. Three editions of the game received official English translations: Fire Pro Wrestling (2001) and Fire Pro Wrestling 2 (2002) for the GBA, and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for PS2 (2007).

At the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, it was announced that a 3-D avatar-based version of Fire Pro Wrestling would be released for the Xbox 360 in 2011. However, it was not released that year. The Xbox 360 edition of Fire Pro Wrestling was released on September 21, 2012. This game uses a button-mashing minigame instead of the traditional timing-based grappling system, in hopes of appealing to a more casual audience.

On February 24, 2017, Spike Chunsoft released a website featuring a teaser video hinting at the series making a return. Less than a week later, on March 3rd, Fire Pro Wrestling World was officially announced, returning the series to its roots, in terms of graphical presentation and gameplay mechanics. The game, which is to come out on PC and Playstation 4, will be the first in the series to incorporate online multiplayer.

Features

Unlike many other pro wrestling games, most games in the Fire Pro Wrestling series are not licensed by any major professional wrestling promotion, but feature likenesses of real-life wrestlers under different names. Games in the series generally utilize 2-D sprite-based graphics, with some later games incorporating 3-D graphical elements. The spin-off series King of Colosseum features polygonal 3-D graphics.

The Fire Pro Wrestling series of games distinguish themselves from other wrestling games by combining other unique features. One feature is the focus on a timing-based grappling control system. The grappling control system encourages the use of complex strategy, built on working up to using increasingly powerful moves on your opponent. The timing-based system also stands in contrast to the button-mashing tactics with which most 2-D wrestling gamers are familiar.

Another feature of Fire Pro Wrestling games is the inclusion of a large roster of playable wrestlers and fighters from different promotions located around the world. The wrestlers and promotions are renamed from their real-life counterparts, and represent many different styles of professional wrestling: North American WWF style sports-entertainment, Mexican lucha-libre, various styles of Japanese puroresu: athletic junior-heavyweight style, realistic strong-style, women's joshi wrestling, and violent hardcore wrestling, as well as different styles of mixed martial arts.

A variety of match types are available in the Fire Pro Wrestling series of games, with flexible settings for the rules within each match. This complements the variety of wrestlers available as playable characters. Different match types include conventional singles and tag-team wrestling matches, extreme hardcore matches such as the Landmine Death Match or Electric Barbed Wire Cage Match, and various types of mixed-martial-arts matches.

Another distinguishing feature of the Fire Pro Wrestling series of games, particularly the later games in the series, is the inclusion of an extensive and highly detailed wrestler creation and edit mode. The edit mode of Fire Pro Wrestling games allows players to build game characters with a high level of attention to detail. Appearance characteristics, such as clothing and ring attire, and physical build, head and facial features, can be customized for a created wrestler. A detailed set of wrestling and fighting moves, drawn from the large pool of moves built into each game, can also be assigned to a created wrestler. The edit mode of Fire Pro Wrestling games also allows players to make detailed changes to the CPU logic of an edited wrestler, making it possible for a skilled creator to create a wrestler that behaves very much like his real-life counterpart, even when controlled by the computer.

Later titles in the series allowed for customization of other aspects of professional wrestling, including changing the design of the ring mat, creating customized championship belts, and creation and editing of referees. The detailed character creation and edit mode of the Fire Pro Wrestling games became an influential feature that was eventually added to other wrestling and sports games.

The combination of features included in Fire Pro Wrestling games allows players to create "dream matchups" of wrestlers from different promotions, or different eras in the history of professional wrestling, as well as matches between real-life wrestlers and fighters, fictional characters and non-wrestling celebrities.